23-year old lefty swinging Brandon Belt is a natural 1B. With that in mind, the Giants should move Aubrey Huff to the outfield to make Belt more comfortable defensively. Belt played in 63 games for the Giants last year and he was 42 for 187 (.225 avg, .718 OPS) with 21 runs scored, 9 homers, 18 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. Belt also played in 53 games in A+AAA-ball last year and he was 57 for 178 (.320 avg, .989 OPS) with 35 runs scored, 8 homers, 36 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. Belt has nothing left to prove in the minors. Belt only made 1 error in 31 games at 1B last year, where he is a better defender than Aubrey Huff is.

35-year old lefty swinging Aubrey Huff won’t give up playing 1B without a battle this spring. Huff played in 150 games for the Giants last year and he was 128 of 521 (.246 avg, .676 OPS) with 45 runs scored, 12 homers, 59 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. He has now played in 307 games in his first two years with the Giants and he is 293 for 1,090 (.269 avg, .789 OPS) with 145 runs scored, 38 homers, 145 RBIs and 12 stolen bases. Huff has now played in 1,629 games in his first 12 years in the majors and he is 1,684 of 6,026 (.279 avg, .808 OPS) with 799 runs scored, 241 homers, 897 RBIs and 37 stolen bases. Huff played in 120 games at 1B for the Giants last year and he made 5 errors there. I see him playing a lot of RF in 2012 for the Giants.

27-year old righty swinging Brett Pill comes into this season as the Giants’ #12 prospect according to Baseball America. Pill is the darkhorse in the competition at 1B for the Giants this spring. Pill played in 15 games for the Giants last year and he was 15 for 50 (.300 avg, .881 OPS) with 7 runs scored, 2 homers and 9 RBIs. Pill also played in 133 games in AAA-ball last year and he was 167 of 536 (.312 avg, .871 OPS) with 82 runs scored, 25 homers, 107 RBIs and 6 stolen bases. Pill didn’t have any errors in 14 games for the Giants at 1B last year.

PROJECTED GRADE FOR THE 1B IN 2012: B